1. Field of the Invention
This invention generally relates to large information displays and, in particular, a display with autonomous secondary display modules for use in conference or meeting rooms.
2. Description of the Related Art
A large information display typically requires connection to a personal computer or video source for the display of information. Some examples of such a display include liquid, crystal display (LCD), organic light emitting diode (OLED), plasma panel, or digital light processing (DLP). Manipulation of the information usually requires computer peripheral devices such as pointing devices—mice, joysticks, tablets—and keyboards. In addition, for collaborative work to include remotely located individuals or groups, some form of telephony is also employed. To display real objects, often yet another piece of equipment, a document camera, is also required. Issues of compatibility and interoperability are poorly addressed as these components accumulate.
Complexity and difficulty of use increase with the number of devices, and reliability also suffers as more and more equipment is introduced. Each component has its own user interface design, which is typically inconsistent across products and vendors. Further, because these are general purpose peripheral devices, they may be removed by other parties from the locale of the information display to be used with computers elsewhere, thus crippling the capabilities of the remaining system components.
Conventionally, a conference room with a large display is outfitted with technological components by a system integrator or installer who interconnects the various devices. However, since these be from mixed vendors or include legacy components, it is difficult to maintain such systems over time, as software updates may cause unintended interactions affecting performance of components.
It would be advantageous if a large screen display could be enabled with central and secondary display sections, where the secondary display sections could be centrally controlled or optionally permitted autonomous local control.